
Class _ 
Book 



/i^ 



^^^^3d'sTi^i^T^\ HOUSE OP REPRESENTATIVES {^No^S^ 



v.iT^^^ - 



JAMES BRECK PERKINS 

(Late a Representative from New York) 

MEMORIAL ADDRESSES 

DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTA- 
TIVES OF THE UNITED STATES 



SIXTY-FIRST CONGRESS 
SECOND SESSION 



Proceedings in the House 
April 3, 1910 






Proceedings in the Senate 
March 12, 1910 



COMPILED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF 
THE JOINT COMMITTEE ON PRINTING 




WASHINGTON 

19U 



K 



fi 







n. 7^- ■ 

ri:p 10 i?^? 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



Page. 

Proceedings in tlie House 5 

Prayer by Rev. Henry N. Couden, D. D 5 

Memorial addresses by — 

Mr. Payne, of New York 10 

Mr. Fassett, of New York 13 

Mr. Clark, of Missouri 18 

Mr. Michael E. Driscoll, of New York 21 

Mr. Washburn, of Massachusetts 27 

Mr. Goulden, of New York 29 

Mr. Bennet, of New York 33 

Mr. Davidson, of Wisconsin 34 

Mr. Parsons, of New York 38 

Mr. Lowden, of Illinois 42 

Mr. Hinshaw, of Nebraska 45 

Mr. Tirrell, of Massachusetts 49 

Mr. Alexander, of New York 54 

Mr. Andrus, of New York 63 

Proceedings in the Senate 67 

Resolutions adopted 68 



[3] 




HON. JAMES B.PERKINS- 



DEATH OF HON. JAMES BRECK PERKINS 



Proceedings in the House 

Friday, March 11. 1910. 
The House met at 12 o'clock noon. 

The Chaplain, Rev. Henry N. Couden, D. D., ofl'ered 
the following prayer: 

Eternal God, Father of all souls, whose love is the same 
yesterday, to-day, and forever. Thou hast touched our 
hearts with sorrow, because Thou hast taken from our 
midst one whom we all loved and admired. A man of 
large parts, as a la^^'J'er he rose to eminence; as a historian 
he wrought a good work; as a representative of the peo- 
ple on the floor of this House he made himself conspicu- 
ous for his wisdom, fidelity, and earnestness of purpose. 

We thank Thee for his life, for what he did, and we 
pray that his memory may ever be an incentive to clean 
living and honest endeavor. 

We can not solve the riddle of life or death, but we 
can put our trust in Thee. 

We know not what the future hath 

Of marvel or surprise, 
Assured alone that life and death 

His mercy underlies. 

[5] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Perkins 

Be very near, we beseech Thee, to his colleagues, 
friends, and the stricken wife, who has walked by his 
side through the years that have bound them together 
in love. Help them and her to look forward to a bright 
beyond, where the mysteries will be solved and happiness 
reign supreme. And everlasting praise be Thine, through 
Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. 

DEATH OF representative PERKINS, OF NEW YORK 

Mr. Payne. Mr. Speaker, it becomes my painful duty to 
announce the death of my late colleague, the Hon. James 
Breck Perkins. Of his private character, his many per- 
sonal virtues, his high public service, his faithfulness to 
his duty, I shall not now take the time to speak, but shall 
ask the House at some future day to set aside an hour to 
pay tribute to the character of the deceased. 

The crowning victory of his life, showing his high sense 
of public duty, appeared in the last request that he made, 
that while, if desired, an announcement of his death 
might be made in the House, he especially desired that 
no adjournment take place, but that the usual business 
of the House proceed until the usual hour of adjournment. 

I believe there is no precedent in the history of the 
House where a Member has asked or made such a request. 
I understand there was one such request in the case of 
Thomas H. Benton, who had ceased to be a Member of 
the House before his death. We can not commend too 
highly this disinterested act of private abasement to 
public duty exhibited by this request. 

At about the usual hour of adjournment 1 shall make 
a motion to adjourn in honor of his memoiy and for 
the appointment of the necessaiy arrangements for his 
funeral. 



[6] 



Proceedings in the House 



Mr. Payne. Mr. Speaker, I offer the following resolu- 
tion, which I send to the desk and ask to have read. 
The Clerk read as follows: 

Resolved, That tlie House has heard with profound sorrow of 
the death of Hon. James Breck Perkins, late a Representative 
from the State of New York; 

Resolved, That the Sergeant at Arms of the House be authorized 
and directed to take charge of the body of the deceased, and to 
make such arrangements as may be necessary for the funeral, 
and tliat the necessary expenses in connection therewith be paid 
out of the contingent fund of the House; 

Resolved, That a committee of this House consisting of 20 Mem- 
bers be appointed to attend his funeral; 

Resolved, That the Clerk communicate these resolutions to the 
Senate and transmit a copy thereof to the family of the deceased. 

The Speaker. The question is on agreeing to the reso- 
lutions. 

The question was taken, and the resolutions were 
agreed to. 

The Chair announced the following committee: 

Mr. Payne, Mr. Fitzgerald, Mr. Alexander of New York, 
Mr. Fornes, Mr. Calder, Mr. Fassett, Mr. Conry, Mr. Daniel 
A. Driscoll, Mr. Parsons, Mr. Michael E. Driscoll, Mr. 
Goulden, Mr. Cocks of New York, Mr. Foster of Vermont, 
Mr. Howard, Mr. Wood of New Jersey, Mr. Hitchcock, Mr. 
Denby, Mr. Lowden, Mr. Ferris, Mr. Edwards of Georgia. 

The Clerk read as follows: 

Resolved, That as a further mark of respect this House do now 
adjourn. 

The Speaker. The question is on agreeing to the reso- 
lution. 

The resolution was agreed to. 

Accordingly, in pursuance of the resolution (at 4 o'clock 
and 53 minutes p. ni.), the House adjourned. 



[7] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Perkins 

Monday, March 21, 1910. 
Mr. Payne. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent for 
the adoption of the following order. 
The Clerk read as follows : 

Ordered, That there be a session of the House on Sunday, the 
3d day of April, at 12 o'clock, to be set apart for eulogies on the 
life, character, and public services of the Hon. James Breck 
Perkins, late a Representative from the State of New York. 

The order was adopted. 

Sunday, April 3, 1910. 
The House met at 12 o'clock noon. 

The Chaplain, Rev. Henry N. Couden, D. D., offered the 
following prayer : 

Holy, holy. Lord God Almighty, before whom angels 
and archangels prostrate themselves in adoration and 
praise, we. Thy children, humbly and reverently bow in 
Thy presence with love and gratitude welling up in our 
hearts because of Thy goodness and wonderful works 
to the children of men. We thank Thee that Thou hast 
imparted unto all Thy children a germ of goodness and 
puritjf, which is ever struggling for ascendency in life and 
action, especially for the good which sees, loves, acts, 
and inspires action in others, for we realize that to act 
intelligently, nobly, and generously is the crowning virtue 
of life. Such was the man in whose memory we gather 
here to-day. We thank Thee that he lived and wrought 
and left behind him a career worthy of all emulation as 
a citizen, a writer, a lawyer, a statesman. We bless Thee 
for the strong ties of love and friendship, for the hope that 
looks forward to the strengthening of those ties which 
shall never again be severed. So comfort his colleagues, 
friends, and loved ones; and Thine be the glory forever. 
Amen. 

[8] 



Proceedings in the House 



The Speaker. The Clerk will report the special order 
for to-day. 

The Clerk read as follows: 

Ordered, That there be a session of the House on Sunday, the 
3d day of April, at 12 o'clock, to be set apart for eulogies on the 
life, character, and public services of the Hon. James Breck 
Perkins, late a Representative from the State of New York. 

Mr. Payne. Mr. Speakei', I offer the following resolu- 
tions. 

The Speaker. The gentleman from New York offers the 
resolutions which the Clerk will report. 

The Clerk read as follows: 

Resolved, That the business of the House be now suspended, 
that opportunity may be given for tributes to the memory of 
Hon. James Breck Perkins, late a Member of this House from 
the State of New York. 

Resolved, That as a particular mark of respect to the memory 
of the deceased, and in recognition of his distinguished public 
career, the House at the conclusion of these exercises shall stand 
adjourned. 

Resolved, That the Clerk communicate these resolutions to the 
Senate. 

Resolved, That the Clerk send a copy of these resolutions to the 
family of the deceased. 

Mr. Payne. Mr. Speaker, I ask for a vote on the resolu- 
tions. 

The question was taken, and the resolutions were unani- 
mously agreed to. 

The Speaker. The gentleman from New York, Mr. 
Knapp, will take the chair. 



[9] 



MEMORIAL ADDRESSES 



Address of Mr. Payne, of New York 

Mr. Speaker: When a good man dies it is fitting that 
those who were liis daily associates should bear witness 
to his exemplary life. His good deeds should be held up 
as worthy of emulation to those who come after him. 
His life should live on, that it may lead other lives to 
follow his example and emulate his character. 

The good man is not wholly lost to the world when he 
is laid low in death. Truth, purity, loyalty, devotion to 
high ideals are as well taught by example as by precept. 
And so the life is ofttimes more potent here, when we 
sorrowfully say that it has passed into the hereafter. 

I first became acquainted with James Breck Perkins in 
1863, at the University of Rochester. He entered there 
as a freshman while I was in the senior class. Fortunately 
it was a small college, class lines were not rigidly drawn, 
and we early became warm friends. He was a fine stu- 
dent, a manl)' young gentleman, and the soul of truth and 
honor. Although but 16 years of age, he had all those 
manly qualities that afterwards developed into full vigor. 
The faculty was an able one, the college too poor to pay 
the salary of tutors, and so all the students came into 
daily contact with the best of teachers. The president, 
Martin B. Anderson, was the peer of any college president 
in the country. His learning, broad common sense, tact, 
and ability to lead developed in the mind of every 
thoughtful student ambition to develop the best that was 
in him. Many a man in after life has had singing in his 

[10] 



Address of Mr. Payne, of New York 



ears the emphatic injunction of this great leader, "Bring 
something to pass, young man." To young Perkins, with 
a mind thirsting for knowledge, ambitious to make his life 
a success, the influence of such a teacher was of priceless 
value. The usefulness of a college course depends chiefly 
upon the student. It is fortunate that this student and 
this particular teacher met every day for four years in 
this formative period of the student's character and life. 

Mr. Perkins was admitted to the bar at the age of 21 
years, and as we lived in the same circuit we often met 
in the courts. He prepared his cases with great care, was 
never taken by surprise, and soon commanded a leading 
position. A Rochester paper, on the day of his funeral, 
justly referred to him as the leader of the Monroe County 
bar. 

From 1890 to 1895 Mr. Perkins lived in Paris, engaged 
in work on French history; in 1887 his France Under 
Mazarin was published; in 1892, France Under the 
Regency; in 1897, France Under Louis XV; and in 1900 a 
Life of Richelieu as one of the Heroes of the Nation series. 

His historical works, already of great worth, will in- 
crease in value as the years go on. They evince great 
research, broad and accurate information, and a faith- 
fulness to detail and to the truth characteristic of the 
author. 

After his return he resumed his law practice, and was 
enjoying a large practice at the time of his decease. 

Beginning in 1898, he was for two years a member of 
the New York Legislature, where he was influential in 
securing much good and wholesome legislation. 

But the crowning work of his life was here in the city 
of Washington. He was elected to the Fifty-seventh Con- 
gress and remained a Member of the House till his death. 

The House, as is its habit, soon learned something of 
the worth of the man. He never addressed the House 



[11] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Perkins 

until he had mastered his subject, and then from the 
abundance of his information he was able to instruct. To 
such a speaker the House always listens. Mr. Perkins 
was able ever to command attention. He could not be 
called a finished orator. But his analysis was clear as the 
ci-ystal, his logic unanswerable, and behind the words was 
the living man, honest, truthful, and sincere. It is to such 
a speaker that men delight to listen, and by whom people 
are moved by the magic of speech. 

He was thoroughly devoted to his duties here. We all 
remember his last work in this Hall, when he kept the 
House in session nearly two hours beyond the usual hour 
of adjournment, with his determination to pass the dip- 
lomatic appropriation bill. While the lines of intense 
pain were written on his face, and he was physically very 
weak, his clear brain and his grit carried him through. 
It was his last day here. He went from the House to the 
hospital. There, on his bed of pain, he could not forget 
the place of his labor and his triumphs. He discovered 
he could see the Capitol from his couch. All through the 
days of his sickness and pain he would have his door 
opened, that he might see this beautiful building, think- 
ing doubtless of the scenes that had been enacted during 
his presence here, and perchance in imagination during 
his absence. In announcing his death to the House I spoke 
of his dying request to his colleagues that no adjournment 
should be had on the day of his death till about the usual 
liour, lest a day be lost to the transaction of the public 
business. This was characteristic of the man, thoughtless 
of self, devoted to duty, and with a spirit of lofty patriot- 
ism " he was faithful unto death." 

What more fitting than that these memorial services 
be held on this Sabbath day. We are holding up the 
example of a good man, honest, faithful, and true, who 
died in the Christian faith, heir to the life immortal. 



[12] 



Address of Mr. Fassett, of New York 

Mr. Speaker: I rise with great diffidence to participate 
in these ceremonies in honor of our departed friend. I 
wish to have my share in paying tribute of respect and 
of affection for our colleague who is gone and of friend- 
ship for my personal friend, whom I shall see no more 
forever. I would be glad if I could say all that there is 
in my heart to say; but how shall a man enumerate the 
virtues of a friend or catalogue the factors of his affec- 
tion? Yet we would like to have the world know him as 
we knew him. We would like to have others see him as 
we saw him. It is true he is gone, but his memory re- 
mains. What he was to each of us and what he was to 
this House will abide as a gracious recollection through- 
out all the coming years. He will continue with us as a 
part of our experience and of our lives. One of the great 
compensations for the trials, the sti'uggles, the disap- 
pointments, and the bitterness of public life is the oppor- 
tunity which it opens to meet and know our associates. 
In no other path of life do men become so well acquainted 
with each other as they really are. In no other calling or 
pursuit do men learn so keenly and justly to appraise 
each other and to know and value truth and merit as they 
find it. Character in this arena is always subjected to 
the acid test, and nowhere else are such warm and endur- 
ing friendships formed as those which develop out of the 
contests and the struggles of political experience. 

The fierce white light that beats upon men in public 
life reveals not alone what flaws and defects there may 
be in life and character, but it brings out the strong 

[13] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Perkins 

qualities and the noble qualities of character as well. 
In that same white light the record and the character of 
Mr. Perkins shine stainless and flawless. His career in 
this House was long and honorable. He was one of the 
strong men in our membership, industrious, studious, 
tireless, a high type of the American gentleman. From 
humble beginnings he had made his way by dint of native 
ability and irrepressible energy to a high position. His 
life must serve both as an example and as an inspiration 
to the young men of America. His career itself has been 
typical. He was always of the sane and normal type of 
mind, always serene and calm and sure and reliable. 
He was a brilliant scholar and leader in his classes, fore- 
most in college, successful at the bar, a learned lawyer, 
a widely read scholar and polished traveler, an historian 
of authority upon one of the most interesting periods 
in French history. He was considerate and courteous, 
always firm in his convictions, and when those convictions 
found themselves rooted upon principle, unyielding, but 
always open minded and brave. He was sympathetic to 
a degree and rejoiced in service. His life was full of good 
services to others. In his quiet way he was ever eager 
and watchful of chance to be of assistance to others. In 
this House he was regarded with respect and affection 
by all his associates. His public utterances may have 
lacked the fire and dash of the ready speaker, but they 
were couched always in the polished phrases and clean- 
cut paragraphs of a writer of classic English. His style 
expressed himself — clear, judicial, deliberate, and con- 
vincing. 

I do not think he could be considered as a showy man, 
but when there were grave crises before this House, when 
there were questions of high moment for decision and 
wise counsel was required, there was no man to whom 
this entire House turned with more respect and more 



[14] 



Address of Mr. Fassett, of New York 

confidence than to our friend. In all his work he was 
exact and painstaking and never spared himself. Few of 
us will ever forget his last appearance in this House. 
Though he was suffering greatly, though his body was 
racked with pain, he gave no sign. He was cheerful, 
patient, and polite through all of his sufferings. His 
devotion to duty, his sense of responsihility, his obedi- 
ence to conscience were so complete that all other con- 
siderations gave way for the work which he felt it was 
his duty to complete. It was characteristic of him that 
among the last words sent to friends in this House was 
the message that if by any chance he should never return 
we should not take the usual adjournment by which the 
House shows its respect for the memory of those who have 
gone before, but should complete the tasks appointed for 
that day; and thus, as always, he put himself last. He 
left a wide circle of friends. He was modest and unob- 
trusive in his demeanor, but resolute and unwavering in 
maintaining a decision arrived at after reflection and 
always ready to give reasons for the faith that was in 
him. He was a delightful and interesting companion. 
Conversation with him was a liberal education. He was 
neither a pedant nor a pedagogue. His views of life were 
sweet and wholesome. He was progressive without being 
radical. He was an optimist, not a pessimist; hopeful, 
not despondent. His whole philosophy of life was sweet 
and wholesome and Christian, and he lived up to his 
philosophy. Whether it was stormy or whether the sun 
was shining, his attitude was one of complacency, for 
he lived as one who did daily his daily task and left the 
consequence with God. 

It was nearly 40 years ago I first knew Mr. Perkins. I 
knew him for many years before he knew me. I remem- 
ber distinctly the slender, intelligent-looking, pale-faced 
lad who visited regularly the library at the University of 

[15] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Perkins 

Rochester, from which institution he had been graduated 
in 1868. I remember being attracted by his appearance 
and asking who he was. I was told his name was Rreck 
Perkins, and that he was one of the most brilliant scholars 
the college had ever turned out; and from that time I 
followed his career, and had the pleasure years later of 
making his acquaintance, and later I enjoyed the privilege 
of a friendship which I trust was mutual. He was a rare 
man, full, round, and ripe. They say that life is long 
which answers life's great end, and the great end of life, 
I take it, is to make the world pleasanter and more profit- 
able for those who live about us; to be a helper, to be of 
service, to be a bearer of burdens, to be a dispenser of 
wise counsel and sympathetic aid, to be slow to anger, 
to be swift in kindness, to help always and to hinder 
seldom. In these services our friend's life was rich and 
long. I never heard from his lips an unkind expression 
toward a fellow man, and no man was ever swifter to see 
virtues in a friend or readier to rejoice in the successes 
of another. And so it was natural that as he passed along 
life's pathway he attracted to him many friends. They 
were stanch friends; held to him by solid worth and 
unselfish service. His death was a loss to each one of us; 
it was a loss to this House; and was especially a great loss 
to the community where he lived. But his life and char- 
acter remain an enduring treasure, for the strength of 
any people is in the number of its righteous men, and the 
memory and the influence of good men of the type and 
stature of our friend are the strong towers of the fortress 
of our liberties. 

We say that he is dead, which is to say his soul has 
parted company with its tenement of clay; but the im- 
pulses he imparted to us shall continue to live in us and 
to bear fruit, each after its kind; and we, in our turn, 
shall pass them on to those that follow us. Mankind is 

[16] 



Address of Mr. Fassett, of New York 

continuously at the crest of the wave of inherited impulses 
and ideas, and thus is ever the heir of all the wealth and 
splendor of the imperishable ideas of all the ages. For 
ideas and ideals, after all, are the only real things in the 
world. Men are but bundles of ideas and dreams clothed 
upon with flesh. Man passes, but his dreams endure. 
Humanity perishes, but the humanities remain. And our 
friend's body is gone, but his dreams of service and of 
human duty remain. We say to him for a little time, an 
ever-shortening time, good night, until that bright to- 
morrow, when we shall meet again face to face and in 
the white light of perfected knowledge we shall know 
each other as we are. 



15479°— 11 2 [17] 



Address of Mr. Clark, of Missouri 

Mr. Speaker: James Breck Perkins seemed to be 
formed by both nature and education for service in the 
House. There was no misfit in his case. He suited the 
House and the House suited him. He took hold at once 
as an old hand. He rose constantly in the estimation of 
his fellow Members and of the country from the day of 
his entry into Congress till the day when he entered the 
life everlasting. His was not a meteoric or spectacular 
ascent, but gradual and continuous. There were no back- 
ward steps in his progress from the class of congressional 
beginners to the head of the great Committee of Foreign 
Affairs. He was equal to the discharge of the duties of 
every position in which he found himself. 

It is interesting to observe what things lead to close 
personal friendships in this House. Similarity of political 
views is one, though some of the most bitter enmities are 
betwixt men of the same political faith. Service on the 
same committees is another. Interest in the same subjects 
is still another. Personal association by reason of prox- 
imity of desks in the House, by living in the same neigh- 
borhood, by attending the same church, and by other 
circumstances more or less accidental. 

I was brought into close relations with Mr. Perkins by 
service with him on the Committee on Foreign Affairs. 
It so happened that during our joint service on that com- 
mittee Mr. Chairman Hitt appointed both of us members 
of the subcommittee to recast the bills on the subject of 

[18] 



Address of Mr. Clark, of Missouri 



Chinese exclusion. Prior to that I had had only a passing 
acquaintance with Mr. Perkins and had had little oppor- 
tunity to acquaint myself with his intellectual equipment 
or his scholastic attainments. During the days which we 
devoted to our joint labors on that subcommittee I found 
him to be a most amiable man, possessing a mind both 
luminous and analytical, with a vast stock of information, 
and that he was peculiarly precise in the use of words. 
The fact that we differed widely on several propositions 
and that I finally dissented from the majority in no way 
diminished the high estimate I formed of him. After- 
wards I always listened carefully to whatever he said in 
public speech or private conversation, and while fre- 
quently disagreeing with him I was always edified and 
generally instructed by his utterances. 

While gentle in manner and courteous to all men, he 
was exceedingly tenacious of his opinions and supported 
them with much force and in the best English. He had 
evidently taken to heart Lord Bacon's words: "Reading 
maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing 
an exact man;" and he was a living illustration of the 
truth of that terse saying of the father of the inductive 
philosophy. His style of speaking was formed no doubt 
from much writing, for he was the author of several his- 
torical works, mostly on certain phases of French history. 
To show how painstaking he was in all he did, it is only 
necessary to state that he spent several years in France 
in researches on the scene of the events of which he wrote 
to verify his facts. 

I am glad that he was an author, for 1 regard it as a 
decided advantage that our public men are more and 
more engaging in the writing of books. My friend Mr. 
McCall, of Massachusetts, has written books of great 
merit, and my friend Mr. Alexander, of New York, has 
found time to write the Political Historj' of New York, 



[19] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Perkins 

in three volumes, which the reviewers pronounce to be a 
fascinating work. 

First and last, there has been a good deal of fun poked 
at The Scholar in Politics; but all sensible and patriotic 
men must rejoice that the tribe of The Scholar in Politics 
is increasing, for information on every possible subject 
is useful, sooner or later, in politics, in its higher and 
better meaning — especially in the two Houses of Congress. 
Of course, a pedant makes himself ridiculous in politics 
or out, in Congress or out. I never knew a scholar less 
inclined to pedantry than was our departed brother. 

Mr. Perkins was a consistent but not a hidebound Re- 
publican partisan. He entertained views of his own, not 
always in harmony with those of a majority of his politi- 
cal fellows, and he was free to express them on what 
seemed to him proper occasions. This was demonstrated 
clearly when he delivered his speech on the lead tariff 
in this House, which was as classical as any speech on 
the tariff in the last quarter century. 

It is said that the President had tendered him a high 
diplomatic post, which he had accepted tentatively. Had 
he lived to enter upon the discharge of the duties per- 
taining thereto there can be no doubt in the mind of any 
man who knew him that he would have filled the position 
with great credit to himself and to the honor of the 
Republic. 



[20] 



Address of Mr. Michael E. Driscoll, of New York 

Mr. Speaker: While we are met to commemoi'ate our 
late friend and colleague, I wish to express in a few words 
my high appeciation of the many sterling qualities of his 
character and my admiration for his great abilities as a 
writer, la^vyer, and legislator. 

In my judgment his life was not only eminently suc- 
cessful and honorable but rich and full and enjoyable 
to an unusual degree. It was almost ideal. In boyhood 
his physical and intellectual development were not 
stunted or dwarfed by grinding poverty and want, nor 
was his disposition soured by adverse circumstances and 
conditions. His social and religious environment was the 
best. His parents were not so poor but that they could 
and did afford him the best opportunities for education 
and culture. Neither were they so rich nor indifferent to 
their son's welfare as to pamper and spoil him with lux- 
uries and frivolities which would unfit him for the strug- 
gle with the world. He was a brilliant and industrious 
student, and neglected none of his excellent opportunities, 
for he was graduated with high honors in the classical 
course of Rochester University in his twentieth year and 
admitted to the bar of our State within a few days after 
reaching his majority. That was, indeed, a good start. 
Very few young men, even in this land of free schools and 
abundant opportunity, are at 21 as well educated and 
equipped for a professional or business career. 

But with him it was only a start for the serious and 
earnest work of his life. He immediately entered upon 

[21] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Perkins 

his professional work with earnestness and enthusiasm. 
Always painstaking, accurate, and thorough, he mastered 
the legal questions involved in his litigations, prepared 
his cases with unusual care, and tried them with marked 
ability and success. 

It is the lot of the majority of young lav^^yers to spend 
some years in drudgery and poverty and professional 
obscurity, wearing out sole leather in the collection of 
doubtful accounts, trying justice-court cases, and strug- 
gling hard to keep the wolf from the door. But not so 
with this man. His ability as a lawyer and his fidelity to 
his clients were at once recognized. His reputation and 
practice grew, and at an age when the young lawyer of 
average attainments or less good fortune is preparing for 
admission to the bar, or straining his finances to pay office 
rent, he was enjoying the honors and emoluments of a 
large and lucrative practice. 

At the age of 27 he was elected city attorney of the large 
and prosperous city of Rochester, and as proof of his 
successful administration of that responsible office he was 
reelected two years thereafter. In young manhood he 
became one of the acknowledged leaders of the Monroe 
County bar, which included in its membership many of 
the most able and eminent lawyers of the Empire State. 

Again, Mr. Perkins was an exception to the ordinary 
college graduate. He did not close his books on philoso- 
phy, science, literature, and history on receipt of his 
university diploma, but continued to read and write. 
With his literary temperament and tastes those studies 
were a source of relaxation and refreshment to which he 
turned with pleasure from the annoyances and perplexi- 
ties of his law office, and he became not only an able and 
successful practitioner but a distinguished scholar and 
man of letters. He read French with facility, and while 
holding his place in the front rank of his profession he 

[22] 



Address of Mr. Driscoll, of New York 

had the inclination and found time to write his France 
under Mazarin. 

In 1890 he moved to Paris with his family and devoted 
the succeeding five years exclusively to the study of Euro- 
pean literature and to historical research, confining his 
attention principally to France in the eighteenth century. 
Five volumes on French history were the result of his 
labor and investigation. They are historical works of 
unusual merit, clear, concise, and thorough, in charming 
style, and very readable and instructive. Had he done 
nothing else worthy of mention, this valuable contribu- 
tion to our standard historical literature would assure 
him an enviable place among the eminent men of our 
time. But as a jurist and legislator he is most generally 
known to the country, and as such, very likely, he will 
be best known to posterity. 

In 1895 he returned to his home and practice in Roches- 
ter. Thereafter he served one term in the New York 
Assembly, and in 1900 was first elected as Representative 
in Congress. 

While Mr. Perkins was a successful attorney and en- 
joyed the intellectual work of preparing and trying law- 
suits, yet, in my judgment, his legislative duties were more 
to his taste. In the State of New York our supreme court 
judges arc not only well paid but the term is long, and 
the position is looked upon as one of great honor and 
dignity. Almost every ambitious and successful member 
of the bar looks forward to a seat on the bench as an hon- 
orable rounding out of his professional career. In all 
probability Mr. Perkins could have gained that prize 
had he sought it and bent his energies toward its attain- 
ment. 

But I am persuaded that he preferred to continue as a 
Member of Congress. On several occasions he said to me 
that, if he had the choice between 14 years on our Su- 



[23] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Perkins 

preme Court Bench and the same period as Representative 
in Congress, he would without any hesitation choose the 
latter. His broad scholarship and accurate information 
on many subjects peculiarly fitted him for his duties here. 
He was patriotic and intensely interested in the national 
welfare. He recognized the fact that the power and juris- 
diction of the Federal Government is constantly increas- 
ing, and that the sphere of usefulness for a man of bis 
talents and aptitude is greater in Congress than in pre- 
siding at a trial term or listening to arguments and decid- 
ing cases on appeal. He enjoyed his work in this body and 
the companionship and good fellowship of the Members, 
and he liked to live in this beautiful citj', which is the 
political center, and is fast becoming the social center 
of the Nation. He had a large circle of friends and a 
comfortable home where be and his accomplished wife 
dispensed a generous and genial hospitality. He entered 
upon his work here with energy and devotion and gave 
it his undivided time and attention. He did not establish 
a reputation at once by the turbulent advocacy of any one 
particular measure or by the delivery of any one brilliant 
speech, for his voice was not the best and he had none of 
the arts and but few of the accomplishments of a finished 
and effective elocutionist. However, his offhand remarks 
were always to the point and sensible, and his prepared 
speeches had a literary touch and finish which are quite 
rare in the Congressional Record. He was not aggressive 
or pushing; he was never spectacular and never played 
to the galleries. 

He did not seem to court attention or demand recogni- 
tion. He was at all times modest and unassuming, and 
therefore his rise in this body and in the admiration and 
esteem of his colleagues on both sides of this Chamber 
was rather gradual and steady and the result of hard work 
and fidelity to his duties. He informed himself not only 



[24] 



Address of Mr. Driscoll, of New York 

on the bills reported from his committees, but as far as 
possible on all important pending legislation. His regular 
attendance, his strict attention to his duties, his active 
participation in debate, speaking only when he had 
something to say, his power of clear analysis, his sound 
judgment and independent spirit, made an impression 
on the membership of this House, and he came to be 
recognized as a leader in thought, if not in management, 
and a man whose views were entitled to respectful con- 
sideration. 

In politics he was a loyal and consistent Republican, 
and always bowed to the will of the majority on this side 
of the Chamber, as expressed in caucus or conference and 
on strictly party questions, while in the consideration of 
other measures he did not feel constrained to coincide 
with the majority of his party, but insisted on the exercise 
of his own judgment and frequently disagreed to the 
reports of committees and was always able to state his 
reasons therefor with clearness and precision. He was a 
man of high ideals and a keen sense of duty, and to say 
that he was honest, sincere, and conscientious in all things 
and true in all his relations with his colleagues and to 
the people whose servant he was is but stating a truism 
to those who knew him well. 

He rapidly rose to the chairmanship of the great Com- 
mittee on Foreign Affairs, a position in the House and 
before the country of which he was justly proud. It was 
a sad and almost tragic event in the histoi-y of Congress 
that just as he entered upon the duties of that office he 
was suddenly stricken down in the fullness of his powers 
and at the height of his activity and usefulness. His place 
in this House will not be readily filled. 

I was perhaps better acquainted with Mr. Perkins than 
with any other man in Congress, for we lived in the same 
neighborhood, and during several years we made a prac- 



[25] 



I 



Memorial Addresses : Representative Perkins 

tice of walking home together from the Capitol. On those 
long walks we discussed any and every question that 
occurred to us, or, strictly speaking, he did, and I was 
a willing and interested listener. His mind was stored 
with a remarkable fund of accurate information on a 
large variety of subjects. During that long and intimate 
acquaintance when we indulged in a free exchange of 
views and confidence, I grew to admire and respect him 
very highly, and was grateful that I could claim him as 
a close and true friend. 

While he had a lively sense of humor and enjoyed a 
good story or joke, he never, even in close companionship 
with men, descended to the vile or vulgar. His was a 
sweet and wholesome nature. His mind was singularly 
pure and his aspirations high. Jealousy or envy found 
no harbor in his heart. He was absolutely devoid of affec- 
tation or conceit, and he wore well. He loved life and 
was in harmony with his environment and in sympathy 
with his fellow men. 

His life and service are an example and inspiration to 
young men, for he personified the kind of life that is 
worth living. He left his impress on society, not only by 
his writings and public service, but by his character and 
influence for good on those with whom he associated. 
The world is a little better and the people a little happier 
for his having lived; and in his death his constituents lost 
a courteous, faithful, and efficient Representative, his 
State one of its most distinguished citizens, his country 
one of its most able and honorable statesmen, and his 
colleagues one of their best-beloved associates. 



[26] 



Address of Mr. Washburn, of Massachusetts 

Mr. Speaker: I wish that my acquaintance with Mr. 
Perkins had been suflficiently long and sufficiently inti- 
mate to enable me to speak in some detail of the great 
qualities which he undoubtedly possessed. I have felt 
in connection with him, as with so many other of my 
associates here, regret that the pressure under which we 
work largely forbids that leisurely social intercourse 
which so soon develops into intimate personal friendship 
among those of congenial tastes and common aims. 

My acquaintance with Mr. Perkins began with my 
service in Congress, but I have not had the pleasure or 
the profit of serving with him upon any committee. Our 
relations have been most friendly, however, and suffi- 
ciently intimate to justify me in availing of the privilege 
now offered to express in a few words my high regard 
for him and my great respect for his character and 
attainments. 

Mr. Perkins was a man of high ideals and great tenacity 
of purpose, independent in thought and intolerant of 
every man or measure that did not ring true. He did not 
hesitate to differ with his party associates if their views 
ran counter to his own, and whatever he said was listened 
to with that attention which is always accorded those who 
never speak unless they have something to say. 

To the performance of his duties here Mr. Perkins 
brought a mind trained in the law, enriched by the 
broader vision of the man of letters. His wit was keen, 
as was his sense of humor. This combination made him 
a most ready and effective debater. He was quick in 
detecting the weak spot in an argument and almost merci- 

[27] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Perkins 

less in exposing it, but what he said was so clearly the 
expression of a mind that only sought the truth that no 
one with whom he differed could take offense. 

I do not think that any man in the House had a deeper 
sense than he of his responsibility or sought to discharge 
it with greater fidelity. 

Most kindly and considerate in his relations with his 
associates, there was added to the feeling of respect we 
all had for him that of deep affection — a most enduring 
foundation upon which his memory will rest. Indeed, I 
doubt if any words uttered here to-day will be as perfect 
a tribute to the man whose death we mourn as the abiding 
sense of loss which we have felt since he ceased to go in 
and out among us. 

Mr. Perkins's unusual qualifications for the place made 
his appointment to the chairmanship of the Committee 
on Foreign Affairs highly satisfactory to all those in and 
out of Congress concerned in the work of that commit- 
tee. His wide learning, the fact that he had lived in 
France for a considerable time, and was himself a his- 
torian of acknowledged reputation all contributed to his 
great equipment for the place. 

His public service terminated witli his presentation of 
the annual bill from his committee. Nothing but an iron 
will held him steadfast to his purpose not to surrender 
to the inroads of disease until that duty was performed. 
Mr. Speaker, I can see him now, pale and weak, the hand 
of death upon him, persisting to the end. That duty done, 
he went out from among us never to return again. We 
may well pause to-day and profit, as we must, in the con- 
templation of the high character and lofty purpose of 
our late associate. There was a man who in all the storms 
of life would say, with Seneca's Pilot: 

O Neptune, you may save me if you will; you may sink me if 
you will; but whatever happen, I shall keep my rudder true. 



[28] 



Address of Mr. Goulden, of New York 

Mr. Speaker : In considering the loss of a man who has 
lived to a good old age and has benefited his time and 
country with brilliant constructive service, we lament the 
man's loss considerably less than we extol his service, 
and give thanks that such a man lived and gave of his 
best to the country. Death in such a case is more like 
a rounding out of a beautiful career, and our tears for the 
loss are blessed ones through contemplation of the sub- 
limely finished life. 

On the contrary, when a young life, after signs of great 
promise, is snuffed out suddenly, our grief is almost incon- 
solable; our lament is for the bud nipped before it had a 
chance to blossom, of great possibilities ruined after we 
had but a ravishing glimpse of them. When we consider 
the death of a poet like Keats, who in his short life gave us 
immortal works destined to live as long as beauty and 
great deeds will live, our minds are lost in wonder at the 
great works which he might have achieved had he been 
spared for at least three-score years; if he gave forth 
master works in his brief life, in his mere youth, he might 
have rivaled Shakespeare, perhaps, before he was 60. 

Our own Lincoln is a pathetic example of a man cut 
down in mid-career; if he had been spared to his country 
the history of reconstruction would have been written in 
very different colors, and one of the bitter periods of our 
national life would have been a time of blessing and 
progress instead. He had shown his wonderful ability. 



[29] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Perkins 



his value to his land, up to the end of the war; and then, 
when his services were priceless, he was snatched away. 
We had magnificent proof of his mettle, of what he was 
born to do; and it taxes the power of imagination to know 
what might have happened for the good of the country 
if fate and circumstances had preserved him to us. 

It is with such feelings that we are forced to think of 
the life of James Breck Perkins, whose sad loss we are 
now met to contemplate and lament. Born in Wisconsin 
in 1847, he was 63 years old when he died; but the number 
of his years is no measure of his usefulness, since we 
have every reason to believe that he was about to start 
on a new career for his country in a diplomatic capacity, 
giving him further opportunity to prove his sterling worth. 

His graduation from the University of Rochester with 
honors in 1867 gave early promise of the man; and that 
his alma mater was not disappointed in him is shown by 
its conferring of the LL. D. degree upon him in 1897, a 
fitting recognition of his fiftieth year in life. Throughout 
his life, whether he tried his hand as author, publicist, 
diplomat, or statesman, he gave evidence of increasing 
ability and broader experience and expanding mind; to 
the verj^ end there was no slackening in his grasp or out- 
look, no running down in ability, no evidence that his 
usefulness had reached its prime. 

He was serving his fifth term as a Representative in 
Congress when the end came, and his associates in this 
House would be among the very first to claim that he 
was infinitely more useful in his fifth than in his fourth 
or third or others; he was not simply filling a place— new 
places had to be made to fit his growing worth. As chair- 
man of the Committee on Foreign Affairs he was ren- 
dering unique service to the House and the Government, 
and the fact that he was chairman of such an important 
committee is the best testimony of his character, since 



[30] 



Address of Mr. Goulden, of New York 

the chairmanships of such committees are not usually 
achieved in such a limited number of terms. 

I do not believe there is much question about his trans- 
fer to the diplomatic corps if physical ills had not settled 
on him; he had given such signs of his worth that the 
Government was forced to notice itj although he never 
shouted about it from the housetops nor kept his hench- 
men bawling it over the land. It was native genius and 
ability telling in his favor. He surely would have proven 
a useful and valuable diplomat and have reflected great 
credit on his country. 

In praising him for the work accomplished in this 
House, and congratulating his country upon his achieve- 
ments, we are forced to lament his taking off at a time 
when he could be of so much more value; when a new 
career of honor and usefulness was opening out before 
him; when his work was but partly done. He was but 
63 years young, with many more years of creditable serv- 
ice still before him. We can mourn for him with the 
same feelings that we mourn the loss of Lincoln before he 
had given to his country all of which he was capable. 

Although sickness caught him, he fought bravely and 
heroically to the end; he never flinched nor gave up hope 
or courage; he laid down no tasks in despair; he fought 
on and on, as long as life was left him, in the hope of 
achieving his best up to the very end. Death could claim 
no victory over him, even though he left us before his 
time. 

We applaud the man and his work to-day while sadly 
lamenting his loss to us. We are met to pay a last tribute 
of honor and respect to a beloved fellow worker whose 
character we admired and whose rugged honesty was 
inspiring. There are not many such achieving results 
without partisan bigotry; and we thank the Great Creator 
for giving him to us. 



[31] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Perkins 

Be ours the duty to follow in his footsteps and imitate 
his unselfish, patriotic life. 

Show us the truth and the pathway of duty; 

Help us to lift up our banner sublime, 
Until earth is restored to its order and beauty, 

Lost in the shadowless morning of time. 

Teach us to sow the seed of many a noble deed; 

Make us determined, undaunted, and strong; 
Armed with the sword of right, dauntless amid the fight, 

Help us to level the bulwarks of wrong. 



[32] 



Address of Mr. Bennet, of New York 

Mr. Speaker: Our late colleague, Mr. Perkins, is not 
only a distinct but a unique loss from among us. As his 
friends we feel first the personal loss, but already we are 
beginning to feel the loss to the House and to the country. 
He had come to fill a place which no one Member will for 
a long time fill so completely. His service silenced the too 
ready sneer at the scholar in politics. His attitude illus- 
trated the possibility of complete, recognized, and useful 
independence within most rigid party allegiance. 

He was equally at home in the prepared address on a 
subject of importance and in the running fire of casual 
debate. The wise and skillful engaged in argument with 
him most carefully and circumspectly, and the heedless 
and unprepared rarely emerged from an encounter with 
him without evident discomfiture. 

His habits of study and concentration admirably 
equipped him for committee service. He met adequately 
every situation. To his service on the Committee on For- 
eign Affairs he brought a ripe knowledge of our own and 
other countries which visibly aided both the committee 
and the House. Had he lived he would have ranked with 
Mr. Hitt as a great chairman of that important committee. 

Others have spoken adequately of his achievements 
outside of this body and, from an acquaintance reaching 
back to his student days, of his blameless and useful life. 

Friend, scholar, statesman, lover of his country, we lose 
all these in James Breck Perkins until the morning 
breaks. 



15479°— 11 3 [33] 



Address of Mr. Davidson, of Wisconsin 

Mr. Speaker: In conformity with the established prac- 
tice of this House, we have assembled for the laudable 
purpose of doing honor to the memorj' of one who hon- 
ored this House by being a Member of it, and whose noble 
and generous deeds in behalf of his country, his State, his 
people, and his family will ever be cherished in the mem- 
ory of those who knew him. 

James Breck Perkins was one of nature's noblemen. 
To know him was to admire, respect, and love him. 

We sometimes, when reference is made to some indi- 
vidual, hear the expression, " He was a gentleman of the 
old school." In our minds we associate that expression 
with the character of a man dignified, courageous, cour- 
teous, kind, and true. The expression might convey the 
impression that gentlemen of the new school, or of to-day, 
are not possessed of these characteristics, and yet no one 
who ever knew Mr. Perkins doubted for one moment his 
possession of all those traits which bespeak the gentle- 
man. 

As a Representative from Wisconsin, I offer this tribute 
to a native of that State. 

Mr. Perkins was born in Wisconsin. He obtained his 
education and grew to young manhood, however, in the 
State of New York, and it was in that State, in the city 
of Rochester, where he first engaged in professional work, 
and where he continued to reside until his death. 

I shall not undertake to speak in detail of his career as 
a student, as a lawyer, or as an author. I knew him as 
a Representative in Congress only. His career here, how- 



[34] 



Address of Mr. Davidson, of Wisconsin 

ever, was of sufficient length to enable us all to appreciate 
his splendid qualities and his gi'eat ability. 

A faithful worker, he brought to the discharge of every 
duty a conscientious desire to do that duty well. He 
sought to legislate in the interests not only of the people 
of his own district and State, but in the interests of the 
people of the whole country. 

He took a broad view of the duty of a Member of the 
National House of Representatives. He realized to the 
fullest extent the desirability of a broad and compre- 
hensive view of every great question confronting us, and 
whenever he took part in debate or in the perfecting of 
bills he strove to emphasize that idea. Whether address- 
ing the House in behalf of bills reported from his com- 
mittee or in connection with measures repoi'ted from 
other committees, he always impressed his colleagues with 
his absolute fairness and sincerity and his firm conviction 
in what he believed was right. 

I appreciated his appointment as a member of the com- 
mittee of which I am chairman, that of Railways and 
Canals. I felt that the committee was honored in having 
a man of his attainments as a member of it. 

His important work, however, was in connection with 
the Committee on Foreign AfTairs, of which he had for 
many years been a member, and of which he had lately 
become chairman. Though never having served the 
Government officially at a foreign post, he had, through 
extensive travel and study, made himself thoroughly 
familiar with our foreign relations, and this qualified him 
exceptionallj' well for service on that committee. 

He was devoted and constant in his friendships, un- 
yielding in his loyalty to friends, uncompromising in his 
fidelity to every political and personal obligation. His 
personal integrity was never questioned. He loved frank- 
ness and sincerity, and hated hypocrisj'. 



[35] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Perkins 

From the day he entered upon his duties as a Member 
of the Fifty-seventh Congress he rapidly grew in influ- 
ence, in the respect of his associates, and in Iiis power to 
command results in the interest of his State and of the 
Nation. He was a man of untiring industry. He never 
faltered. He was stricken down in the prime of life and 
in the apparent noonday of a most honorable and suc- 
cessful public career, and when still higher honors 
seemed beckoning to him from the future. 

Knowing this, it is hard for us to realize that his work 
was finished and that the time had come for him to rest 
from his labors. Yet it is not for us to question; it is not 
for us to doubt. The nobility of a man's life can not be 
measured by the number of his years. " No one has lived 
a short life who has performed his duties with unblem- 
ished character." Good deeds, virtuous acts, rather than 
white hairs or length of days, tell the true history of a 
man's life. 

He who rules the universe and determines all things 
ordained that for our colleague the hour of 12 had struck; 
yet we can not believe that the book of his life was closed 
until the accounts were fully balanced. He in whom our 
friend believed called him hence, and as he had faithfully 
followed the Master in this life he was ready to answer, 
" Here am I," when the summons came. 

In our weakness and frailty we can not understand why 
he, who seemed so full of life and courage and who was 
so able and well equipped to serve his people and his 
country, should be called away at such a time. Yet some 
day we will understand, " for now we see as through a 
glass, darkly, but then face to face; now we know in part, 
then we shall know even as we are known." 

He is with us no more. He has entered into that man- 
sion whose portals open only to the approaching guest. 
We shall see him in the physical sense no more, but the 



[36] 



Address of Mr. Davidson, of Wisconsin 

influence of his character and the gloiy of his achieve- 
ments will remain with us forever. 

The orb which cast its radiance about us has indeed 
gone down, but its luster still lingers to light the pathway 
to duty and endeavor. 

^ We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths; 
^^ In feelings, not in figures on a dial. 

We should count time by heart throbs. He most lives 
Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best. 

Measured by this standard, his life was complete and 
well rounded, his career crowned with success. 

Within the sacred portals of that home, now the abode 
of sorrow and affliction, we would not intrude. Words 
of comfort and consolation from practically strangers are 
of but little avail, yet to the broken-hearted widow, who 
for so many years had been his companion, we offer our 
sincere sympathy. To her it may now seem as if there 
was no ray of light from out the future, yet " He who doeth 
all things well " has said to those so sorely afflicted, " I 
will not leave thee nor forsake thee." 

Her faith teaches her that this is not the end; that surely 
there is an after life where light and peace shall come; 
where the burden shall be lifted and the heartache shall 
cease; where all the love and hope that slipped away 
from us here shall be given back to us again, and given 
back forever. 

Blessed as that faith may be, we realize that in time of 
sore affliction it is difficult to accept it uncomplainingly, 
and hence our great sympathy for her who now mourns 
the loss of a true and devoted husband. Deprived of his 
counsel, his support, and his love, she sits amid the ruins 
of a broken family circle, and at her lonely fireside alone 
" waiting, waiting, waiting for the touch of a vanished 
hand, for the sound of a voice that is still." 



[37] 



Address of Mr. Parsons, of New York 

Mr. Speaker — 

None knew him but to love him, 
None named liim but to praise. 

Those lines succinctlj' state the affection and regard 
that any man felt for James Breck Perkins who was 
brought in contact with him, whatever their disparity in 
years. He had a lovable character. He was unpreten- 
tious, sympathetic, and agreeable. He had a keen sense 
of humor. 

He was the scholar in politics. Whatever he said com- 
manded hearing and respect. He illuminated whatever 
he discussed. Even his opponents gladly listened to him, 
for he reasoned clearly, and in difficult matters our own 
judgment is clearer after hearing the legitimate argu- 
ments supporting the side opposed to us. His sympathies 
were as broad as his learning. Pretty much everything 
interested him. 

In his first Congress, the Fifty-seventh, he discussed the 
tariff, urging a revision which would make free hides, 
coal, lumber, and meats. From time to time thereafter 
he discussed the tariff, constantly urging revision, no 
matter how far off the day seemed. Independent he 
always was, and so also was he always reasonable. A 
fine philosophy of history ran through his speeches. His 
intimate study of France made him look with equanimity 
on the great fortunes of to-day, for he compared them to 
those of the great cardinals of France, whose fortunes 
then, he said, were proportionately as great. History also 
freed him from fear of evil consequences of some radical 



[38] 



Address of Mr. Parsons, of New York 



legislation. He introduced a bill and argued strongly 
for a progressive Federal inheritance tax. 

The welfare of the laboring classes was to him, as his 
speeches show, the desideratum in a countiy that was to 
be blessed with prosperity and happiness. It was from 
their point of view that he approached the tariff, and for 
that reason that he argued in favor of the exclusion of 
Chinese coolies and foreign pauper labor. Other matters 
that attracted his attention were Cuban reciprocity, the 
Philippine friar lands, Indian affairs, and taxation in the 
District of Columbia. He was a strong advocate of inter- 
nal improvements and opposed to great armaments and 
fortifications. Many a man who differed with him did 
so hesitatingly, so much did he command respect for his 
knowledge and learning. In foreign affairs he was par- 
ticularly interested, and for years he advocated the pur- 
chase of embassy buildings. 

Equally useful was he in more prosaic matters. He 
rendered most valuable service to the Committee on 
Printing. 

The high respect in which this House held him was 
twice conspicuously manifested. He was made one of 
the managers of the impeachment of Judge Swayne, and 
he was made chairman of the special committee to which 
was committed the message of President Roosevelt on 
the secret service. No unpleasanter task than the latter 
could have been assigned to him, but he handled it with 
the same fortitude and disregard of consequences that 
he gave to the diplomatic appropriation bill when the 
hand of death was on him. He knew no fear. 

While he was essentially a student, he was a man of 
many sides. He loved good music; he was fond of ani- 
mals; he had killed big game; he knew the "pleasure of 
the pathless woods," and had traveled oft to see " the 
wild cataract leap in glorj." His joy in things of nature 



[39] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Perkins 

was echoed in tliose verses of the hymn, O Mother dear, 
Jerusalem, which was sung at his funeral, that say: 

Thy gardens and thy goodly walks 

Continually are green, 
Where grow such sweet and pleasant flowers 

As nowhere else are seen. 

Right through thy streets with silver sound 

The living waters flow; 
And on the banks on either side, 

The trees of life do grow. 

Those trees forevermore bear fruit, 

And evermore do spring; 
There evermore the angels are. 

And evermore do sing. 

He made the most of life. He incarnated plain living 
and high thinking; neither great possessions nor great 
fame was necessary to his happiness. Of such as he the 
poet was speaking when he said : 

One man with a dream at pleasure 

Shall go forth and conquer a crown. 

And three with a new song's measure 
Can trample a kingdom down. 

The thing itself and the doing of it gave him satisfaction. 
This is well illustrated by his own words in his preface 
written in 1886 to his book on France under Mazarin and 
Richelieu : 

" To a student of history," he wrote, " the pleasure of 
being brought into close contact with the great figures of 
other times, of reading their thoughts and their purposes, 
of living for awhile in intimate relations with a genera- 
tion that has long passed away, sympathizing as a con- 
temporary' might with their adversity and their suffering, 
rejoicing in what gratified national pride or increased 



[40] 



Address of Mr. Parsons, of New York 

individual comfort, is such that though what I have writ- 
ten should only add to the number of valueless books, the 
years spent in the study of French life and histoiy under 
the rule of the two great cardinals will have an enduring 
charm in the recollection of the writer." 

James Breck Perkins was an ornament to this House, 
an honor to his State, a noble servant of his district, and 
a much loved and now lamented friend. The most fitting 
description of him is in the centuries-old lines of Sir 
Henry Wotton : 

How happy is he born and taught, 

Who serveth not another's will; 
Whose armor is his honest thought, 

And simple truth his utmost skill. 

Whose passions not his master's are, 

Whose soul is still prepared for death. 

Not tied unto the world with care 
Of public fame or private breath. 

Who God doth late and early pray 

More of His grace than gifts to lend; 
And walks with man from day to day 

As with a brother and a friend. 

This man is freed from servile bands 

Of hope to rise, or fear to fall; 
Lord of himself, tho' not of lands, 

And having nothing, yet hath all. 



[41] 



Address of Mr. Lowden, of Illinois 

Mr. Speaker: Shortly after I first came to Congress a 
Member arose to address the House. I was much im- 
pressed with his thoughtful and temperate words. I 
asked my colleague, Mr. Mann, who the gentleman was. 
He replied that it was " Mr. Perkins, of New York, one 
of the most accomplished men in the House." It was not 
long until I was appointed a member of the Committee 
on Foreign Affairs, and thus became an associate of Mr. 
Perkins. From that day until his last illness my rela- 
tions with him were close and cordial. He seemed to me 
then and he seems to me now to have been an ideal 
legislator. 

He was a hard student and brought to any discussion 
in which he was engaged thorough preparation. He was 
devoid of affectation, and if any question arose upon 
which he could not speak authoritatively he frankly said 
so. As chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs 
he was exceedingly generous to his colleagues, and they 
not only had respect for his abilities, but affection for his 
character. He was ideally equipped for his position at 
the head of the Foreign Affairs Committee. His scholarly 
qualities, his historical studies, and his experience abroad 
all conspired to make him a peculiarly efficient chairman 
of his committee. 

He was a lawyer of note, an author of distinction, and 
a well-rounded man in all respects. His sense of duty 
was keen, and though already a sick man, he remained in 
the House until the diplomatic appropriation bill was 
passed. Urged by several of his colleagues to go away 
for a rest, he insisted upon remaining here until the bill 



[42] 



Address of Mr. Lowden, of Illinois 



was finally passed by the House. No worn and wounded 
soldier, by sheer force of will, ever engaged in battle with 
more courage than did James Breck Perkins when he led 
the fight in support of the last diplomatic appropriation 
bill. No chairman of a great committee during my serv- 
ice here has handled with more tact, or more ability, or 
more patience a bill reported from a committee than did 
this sick man on the vei*y last day of his service in the 
House, and this, too, though it was the first diplomatic 
appropriation bill of which he had been in charge. 

The House and the country will miss him much, but, 
outside of his family, no one will miss him quite so much, 
I venture to say, as the members of the Committee on 
Foreign Affairs, whose full confidence he had and whose 
affections he had won. 

His was a charming personality. Cultured, genial, and 
sympathetic, everybody with whom he came in contact 
was his friend. It has appeared since his death that he 
was destined to an important ambassadorship. It is a 
strange coincidence that he, like one of his predecessors, 
Robert R. Hitt, died just as his career was about to round 
itself out in the service of his country as his country's 
representative abroad. And no one can doubt that both 
would have served in that capacity with honor to their 
country and with added luster to themselves. 

James Breck Perkins died in his prime. To the ob- 
server it appeared that many useful years — more useful, 
perhaps, than any in his successful career- — lay before 
him. His untimely death shocked all. But who can say 
that this was an ill to him? The longest life is so brief 
that a few years more or less on earth matter not. The 
psalmist says : 

The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by 
reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength 
labor and sorrow, for it is soon cut off, and we fly away. 



[43] 



Memorul Addresses: Representative Perkins 

We lament the death of him whom we called our friend, 
but not so much on his account as on our own. It is those 
who survive who have our keenest sympathy, not him who 
has gone from our midst. He who dies as Perkins died 
has fought a good fight and won a final victory. But to 
his family and friends the world will never be quite the 
same again. And so to-day our hearts go out especially 
to the widow of this lovable and distinguished man, who 
fought beside him with courage equal to his own until the 
final summons came. Our sympathies are yvUh her 
to-day, for it is true that he finished his career as every 
brave and loyal gentleman would wish, and is safe in 
the hands of Almighty God; but she who traveled by his 
side during the pilgrimage of many years must now pur- 
sue her way alone. May God bless her in these lonely 
hours of her anguish. 



[44] 



Address of Mr. Hinshaw, of Nebraska 

Mr. Speaker: James Breck Perkins was cast in no com- 
mon mold. He was in reality what is often proclaimed 
without discrimination " a gentleman and a scholar." 
Refined, cultured, educated, he added to inborn civility 
that grace and comeliness which is derived only from 
study, travel, and contact with the people of the great 
world. His speech, his writings proclaimed the student 
and the man of thought. On the floor of this House his 
talks were brief, pointed, and apt to the time and place. 
On a notable and delicate occasion, which in less diplo- 
matic speech than his might have provoked dissension, 
prolonged discussion, and much bitterness, his presenta- 
tion of the matter was conciliatory, convincing, and ex- 
alted, and the resolution was adopted as he requested, 
" without debate and without dissent." 

It has seemed to me that he was peculiarly fitted for 
the chairmanship of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, 
and that he would have added dignity and distinction to 
our diplomatic service if, as has been indicated by a letter 
from President Taft, it was the intention to make him 
ambassador to one of the larger nations. 

In this Chamber he was not voluminous of speech, but 
on proper occasion he was illuminating, clear, and in- 
cisive. Earnest, sincere, conscientious, he regarded his 
duties seriously, his responsibilities no slight burden. 

He spent five years in Paris, engaged in mastering the 
details of the history of France from the days of Henry 



[45] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Perkins 

rV to the Revolution. He wrote France under Mazarin, 
France under the Regency, France under Louis XV, and 
a Life of Richelieu. The puritj' of the style employed 
in these works attracts and holds the attention, and the 
mass of information collated and systematized indicates 
the vast amount of research and the analytical mind of 
the author. 

Clearness is said to be the essence of style. For this 
quality Macaulay stands preeminent. Here are a few of 
the clear and terse sentences which illustrate the clearness 
and lucidity of the style of Mr. Perkins. Speaking of the 
Duke of Bourbon, First Minister of Louis XV, he says: 

Beginning life amid the dissipation of the Palais Royal, he 
ended his days amid the austerities of the Abbey of Sainte Gene- 
vieve, but he was so unfortunately constituted that in him even 
virtue became grotesque; the son of the Regent and the grand- 
father of Philippe Egalite proved the uncertainty of heredity by 
giving his time to writing treatises against the theater, in the 
interval of studies on the theological works of Theodore of Mop- 
suestia; although his income exceeded three million francs, he 
slept on a straw pallet, fasted with severity, went without fires 
on cold and wintry days, and made his fellow monks miserable 
by the rigorous discipline on which he insisted. Such practices 
killed him at exactly the same age that debauchery closed the 
career of his father. Bourbon was not a man of ability, but he 
had little trouble in pushing his pious cousin out of his path. 

Again, he describes the journey of Marie Leszczynski, 
the Polish princess, who came to Paris to become the wife 
and queen of the dissolute Louis : 

Her journey would have been more comfortable with fewer 
fetes and better roads. The weather was rainy, and in those days 
no royal pomp could overcome the miseries of travel in bad 
weather. The queen's carriage stuck in the mud, and it needed 
thirty horses to pull it out. Marie and her suite were drenched, 
and the peasants were ordered out to assist in moving the lug- 
gage; the crops had been bad, and both men and horses looked 



[46] 



Address of Mr. Minshaw, ok Nebraska 

half starved; as they worked in the mire the new queen had an 
opportunity to compare the squalor and misery of the people 
with the splendor that awaited her at Versailles. 

Speaking of the unhappy Huguenot women who were 
for conscience's sake imprisoned in the tower of Con- 
stance : 

The prison consisted of two large round halls, one above the 
other; the lower one received its light from a hole about 6 feet 
in diameter, and this also served to carry off the smoke; the upper 
hall was lighted by a similar opening into a terrace which 
formed the roof. These were the only openings for air and light, 
and they let in also both rain and wind. The beds were placed 
around the halls, and in the center the fires were made. In this 
gloomy habitation women passed long lives of misery, in need, 
in darkness, in discomfort, listening to the distant sound of the 
waves and to the howling of the wind over the marshes, and 
waiting for the day of deliverance which came not. 

Again, he sets forth the lethargj' and indifference of 
the French court and the reason for lifelong imprisonment 
for trivial offenses : 

Still they were not released, for that required some act of 
vigor, some positive departure from codes and creeds, in which 
few believed, but which all continued to enforce. No one dared 
to touch the crumbling fabric of barbaric laws; these unfortunate 
women did not excite the attention of the philosophers; no storm 
of indignation disturbed the Government as to the inmates of the 
tower of Constance; the prisoners languished in prison, as did 
some in the Bastile, not because anyone was anxious to keep 
them in, but because no one troubled himself to get them out. 

While j'et in his prime and with long years of useful- 
ness inviting to renewed efforts, and at the very' maturity 
of his powers, Mr. Perkins was stricken, and fell in active 
conflict upon the field of battle. We do not know what 
visions of the coming years may have lured him on. 



[47] 



Memori.\l Addresses: Representative Perkins 



Perhaps in some wider field he may have desired to ex- 
pend the activities of his resourceful mind and have given 
to men the fruits of long cultivation and skillful hus- 
bandry. It is sad that often those best prepared to live 
are most apt to die. And yet, since death must come at 
last, the time and place of his untimely taking off were 
not unsuited to the life he led. As Antony said at the dead 
Caesar's side: "Live a thousand years, I shall not find 
myself so apt to die." He died as he had lived, " among 
the choice and master spirits of this age." 

I do not know what views he held of another life, but 
doubtless, as he read and pondered the lore of antiquity 
and grasped the tendencies of modern thought, he could 
not well believe that this stupendous creation of universe 
and man was made in vain. And I think we may this day 
join with Whittier, with some slight change of phrase, as 
we speak a final word of him who, we hope, has joined 
the " senate of the skies: " 

For love will dream and faith will trust 
Ttiat somehow, somewhere, meet we must. 
Alas, for him who never sees 
The stars shine through his cypress trees, 
Who hath not learned in hours of faith 

The truth, to sense and flesh unknown. 
That life is ever lord of death 

And love can never lose its own. 
And when the sunset gates unbar, 

Shall we not see him, waiting, stand. 
And, white against the evening star, 

The welcome of his beckoning hand? 



[48] 



Address of Mr. Tirrell, of Massachusetts 

Mr. Speaker: I became acquainted with our lamented 
associate soon after being sworn in as a Member of the 
Fiftj'-seventh Congress. We entered congressional life 
at the same time, and chance threw us much together then, 
as it has since, in the swiftly flying years. We were seat 
mates in the Sixtieth Congress. We often after the daily 
sessions were over strolled down the Avenue and engaged 
in that intimate association that leads, for any sort of an 
appreciative mind, to a disclosure of the tastes, acquisi- 
tions, and character of the man himself. It is at such 
times, in unguarded moments, that the ideals of a man 
become apparent. In his case they became apparent only 
as they show, as clear as ciystal, in the expressions of his 
opinions and in the light he shed on the diversified topics 
he talked upon or argued with untrammeled freedom. 
So I wish to add my tribute, as to a personal friend whom 
1 loved and admired, now lost to sight, to memory dear. 

There is a somewhat artificial life surrounding us here. 
We know comparatively little of each other, except the 
few intimates that we make. We must go to the home 
community, where from boyhood has been seen the devel- 
opment of the moral and intellectual qualities, to correctly 
judge the man. You can not deceive those who have 
grown up with you in the public schools or your playmates 
or associates of early years. They know, if anj^one, how 
you look upon life, what your conditions are, by what 
motives you are actuated, and how you will be likely 
to conduct yourself in the exigencies of life. Thus judg- 
ing, few could stand the test better than he of whom we 
speak. The news of his decease spread like a pall over 

15479°— 11 i [49] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Perkins 

his home from boyhood, the city of Rochester, and the 
press of that city gave spontaneous utterances to the uni- 
versal grief. In the review of liis life then published 
there was unanimity in their conclusions, which can be 
briefly epitomized. 

" His career was unsullied." " He has left an example 
of cleanliness of life and patriotic devotion to the cause 
of civic. State, and national righteousness." " He knew 
neither fear nor favor." " He never shrank from the per- 
formance of the duty of the hour." " He had the faculty 
of seeing the truth and the courage of uttering it." " He 
was a zealous and conscientious worker, with a high sense 
of the responsibilit}^ of his office." 

Such are some of the tributes paid to him by the press 
of his home city, reflecting the estimates of his neighbors 
and fellow-citizens, who have known him from the early 
days. He is enshrined in their memory by a monument 
more perennial, as Horace says, than that of brass. His 
is an example of a well-spent life, which has left its im- 
press upon his generation. He will long be held as a 
guide and inspiration for the youth of Rochester, and his 
brilliant career will often be thus rehearsed on the plat- 
form and by the fireside in the days to come. Happy in 
his home and domestic relations, happy also in the aff"ec- 
tionate remembrance of the great city which thus lays 
its garlands on his grave. 

In our estimate, as one of his associates, it is easy to 
believe that he was precocious and led his fellows in 
school and college. When 1.5 j'ears old he won bj' his 
record in the high school a free scholarship in tlie Roches- 
ter University, and at the age of 19 graduated with the 
highest honors at that institution. He had the intrepidity, 
when 18 years old, to make a six months' trip to Europe 
with very meager means, traveling mostly on foot over 
historic ground. France, especially, appealed to him, and 



[50] 



Address of Mr. Tirrell, of Massachusetts 

probably was then first conceived the writing of the 
French histories which will long be the authority on the 
epochs he treated. 

In 1881 he went abroad to study French history and 
altogether passed nearly five years in France so engaged. 
His clearness of thought, his grasp of the situation, his 
selection of salient features of the reign he was depicting, 
his analj'sis of the good and bad, the useless and danger- 
ous movements of the age were faithfully portrayed with- 
out fear or favor. He came to his own conclusions, which 
he fortified by facts, and was indifferent to what others 
might say. In fact, as one reads these pages, the manner, 
the method, the selection, the structure of the sentences, 
and the style remind us forcibly of his addresses on this 
floor, and it was as though he was addressing us and we 
could hear his familiar voice again. 

Our associate was admirably equipped for legislative 
duty. He had a retentive memory which supplied him 
with the necessary data to discuss measures brought up 
for consideration here. He illustrated the apothegm of 
Bacon that, "Reading maketh a full man, conference a 
ready man, and writing an exact man." He was a scholar 
familiar with the facts and reasonings on which consti- 
tutional and legislative enactments were based. His 
readiness in debate was the result of large experience in 
that line, and his works as a publicist and historian had 
balanced his mind so that he arrived at his conclusions 
not by partial information but by a just balance of all 
sides of the question at issue. As a debater he ranked 
high for this reason, and admitting his premises it was 
hard to controvert his argument. There was always great 
plausibility in his positions, so that his premises must 
have weaknesses to successfully win in debate against 
him. Often great debaters are at times overthrown, but 
that he seldom was we can all attest. 



[51] 



Memorial Addresses : Representative Perkins 

He was an indefatigable worker, delighting in attack- 
ing difficult questions, and would often unexpectedly 
plunge into strenuous combats. He was seldom absent 
from our sessions, and had the faculty, while apparently 
indifferent to what was going on, of observing the question 
under discussion, ready at a moment's notice to take a 
prominent part. He had a constructive mind, as his 
numerous reports bear witness, and no task assigned him 
was not thoroughly performed. Independency was a 
marked characteristic, but this independency did not lead 
him to abandon in the slightest his party fealty. The 
principles of the party he was aligned with, and by whose 
confidence he was elected to this body, were faithfully 
supported, but he did not carry this so far as to lend his 
aid to any measure which affected the industrial interests 
of the counti-y because some might say the majority of his 
party were in its favor. On essentials he was a Repub- 
lican; on nonessentials he was thoroughly unbiased, and 
always had a reason for the faith within him. 

As a host he was delightful. He knew how to make his 
guests at home and put them at their ease. Uncon- 
strained, familiar yet dignified, interesting and instructive, 
not a pedant, but a good listener as well as conversation- 
alist, it was a liberal education to be numbered as one of 
his intimate friends. 

While he was not given to witticism or humor he had 
a keen appreciation of both. He could reply in similar 
strains, and it needed a very alert mind not to be worsted 
in the contest. His growth in this House was marked, 
and it must be admitted that he attained a commanding 
position as a Representative in Congress. 

I remember well the last occasion of his appearance in 
the House. He had charge of the diplomatic bill, and as 
the bill was read was subjected to a running fire of ques- 
tions in its explanation. I was sitting in front of him and 



[52] 



Address of Mk. Tihhell, of Massachusetts 

in full view of him as he proceeded. I was forcibly im- 
pressed that he was ill and suffering, and wondered much 
that he could proceed. Yet his replies were full, satisfac- 
tory, and exhaustive. He appeared at ease. There was 
no trepidation, hesitancy, or lack of coherency. He was 
himself. An iron will triumphed over bodily infirmity, 
and a sense of duty carried him victoriously through the 
trying ordeal. The next day he left us, to return no more. 

But the night dew that falls, though in silence it weeps, 
Shall brighten with verdure the grave where he sleeps; 
And the tear that we shed, though in secret it rolls, 
Shall long keep his memory green in our souls. 



[53] 



Address or Mr. Alexander, of New York 

Mr. Spe.\ker: Since entering Congress it has been my 
custom, whenever weather permitted, to walk back and 
forth between my home and the Capitol, and of those 
whose company I have fi'equently shared at these times 
none were more interesting than my friend and former 
colleague James Breck Perkins. He was both ready and 
bright. Full of information, accurate in his estimate of 
men, humorously amiable in his criticisms, and pleas- 
ingly just in his judgments, conversation with him was a 
delight and association an education. With such company 
long walks excel long dinners, bracing air conduces to 
thought more than sparkling wine, and the spring sun- 
shine is better for courting the Muses than the diaphanous 
rays of many electric lights. 

It was at such times that I came to know the vigor and 
extent of Mr. Perkins's intellectual equipment. His mind 
was assimilative, his wit at times caustic, although never 
unfair or conceited, and his talk free and measured. 
While usually serious he was capable of much of that 
banter, playing with a topic or with the feeling of the 
moment, which, for the want of a better word, we call 
" fun." He loved to toy with another's opinion, to disa- 
gree facetiously with the expression of orthodox views, 
or to advocate playfully the Machiavellian subtlety that 
characterized the administration of Richelieu, for whose 
peculiar genius he had great admiration. Yet he rarelj' 
left one without discovering that elevation of mind which 
seeks with an enlightened and open conscience to know 
the right and, having finally decided what course to take, 



[54] 



Address of Mr. Alexander, of New York 

dares firmly to support it, disdaining tlie vulgar trappings 
of mere wealth and the craze for exploitation. He never 
posed for the public, nor lived in an arena of social or 
political intrigue. 

To me the chief charm of his personality was his ra- 
tional independence. Indeed, in theory he came veiy 
near being an out-and-out independent. He possessed 
high ideals, lofty patriotism, and what George William 
Curtis called " a public conscience." He listened, too, not 
for the noisy applause of men, but for the still, small voice 
in his own breast. Nevertheless, although recognizing 
that the government of a republic must be government by 
party, he repudiated the Curtis theory that independence 
of party is more vitally essential in a republic than fidelity 
to party. This did not make him a devotee of party, right 
or wrong. While he was plainly guided by that powerful 
and complex force which we know as party feeling, he 
did not profess what he did not believe, or affect what he 
did not feel, or act because of fear. His independence 
preferred to assimilate the best of the past with the best 
of the present, not wishing to rely for political safety upon 
the follies of the opposition. Like a successful soldier, he 
thought the better way was to move the markers and the 
flag 10 paces to the front, and by patient firmness and 
indomitable courage create a new alignment without the 
confusion of a stampede or the danger of defeat. In other 
words, he belonged to that decisive element of his party 
which faithfully, unselfishly, and from its sincerest con- 
viction has always labored to construct and maintain the 
partj' because it was to them the best instrument for pro- 
moting the best interests of the country'. 

Of his life's work I became the most deeply interested 
in the literarj' side. His mind was of genuine sensitive- 
ness, his reading wide, and his memory sound. He talked 
familiarly of books, and especially of their authors, whose 



[55] 



Memori.vi. Addresses: Representative Perkins 



names and the very year of their development into writers 
of more than local repute fell from his lips like the letters 
of the alphabet. A harder achievement was an analysis 
of the influence one author seemed to have had upon 
another. Doubtless his study of French history had un- 
consciously filled his memory with the similarity of their 
views, and although the difficulty of tracing these purely 
literarj' influences stimulated the critical spirit, and often, 
perhaps, led him into fanciful likenesses, his readiness in 
citing illustrations in support of his theory showed the 
marvelous extent of his knowledge of literature. More- 
over, it was intensely entertaining. 

Mr. Perkins was so possessed by the literary spirit that 
even after admission to the bar he divided his time be- 
tween law and literature. Year after year he practiced 
law in the daytime and then wrote far into the night. 
Finally, at the age of 40, came the publication of his first 
book. The emotions of an author at such a moment have 
been aptly described by George William Curtis: 

It seems all very natural — 

He wrote — 

very much as it seems to a young papa, who beholds a redness 
in a white blanket, and is told that it is his heir; or, perhaps, even 
more as a sensible tree feels when it sees one of its fruits fallen 
separate upon the ground. 

Speaking of his first volume, Mr. Perkins said, mod- 
estly : 

France under Mazarin was, perhaps, successful, but not much 
of a hit. 

Who that really knew him would have expected more? 
Yet he knew that the book, very kindly received Ijy the 
American press, was promptly translated into French and 



[56] 



Address of INIr. Alexander, of New York 

quicklj' made its way to the other side of the Atlantic. 
More significant was the sale of a first edition. 

After this successful venture the literary spirit seems 
wholly to have consumed him, and to gratify it he gave 
up, at the age of 43, an active and lucrative business and 
went to France, through which he had already tramped 
as a young college graduate. He never told me, at least 
not in one consecutive or continued story, how greatly he 
enjoj'ed these five years in Pai'is. But it came piecemeal, 
as a drizzlj^ rain, or the bright sunshine of a March day, 
or the chatter of passing Frenchmen suggested incidents 
which revealed, like lightning in the night, the choice 
memories of his favorite city. To his eyes everything 
Parisian was a picture. 

Nor did he tell me how deeply it grieved him, after 
having made good as an accepted historian of high rank, 
to return to a profession that, however much to his liking, 
did not appeal to him as a first choice. " I see now," Haw- 
thorne wrote Curtis, in 1851, on the appearance of the lat- 
ter's Nile Notes, " that you are an author forever." And 
an author Mr. Perkins was to the last. Even in Congress 
he was under the spell of the literaiy spirit. His set 
speeches indicate a writer's choice in the selected words, 
a charm of form, a delicate and studied style, which 
showed a love of scholarship no less than a delight in the 
rhythmical flow of language. Yet for the mere daintiness 
of letters, that overrefinement which robs substance of its 
inspiration, he had little taste. Nevertheless, his books 
disclose a student's facility for condensing and a decided 
preference for the scholar's moderation of statement. His 
aversion to exaggeration was deeply rooted. 

He did not drift into authorship. A marked literary 
taste seems to have been inherited. In college he studied 
with eager and tireless zeal the art of writing, revealing 
the rich character of his mind and leaving behind him 



[57] 



Memori.\i. Addresses : Representative Perkins 

traditions of good work. Years afterwards undergrad- 
uates of Rochester University, seeing him enter and leave 
the college library with arms full of books, turned to 
admire the student face and benignant manner. Yet there 
was no pose of learning about him, no assumption that he 
was a superior being. Nor in later life did he ever speak 
of his books unless first addressed respecting them. To 
him writing was a source of profound enjoj'ment, mod- 
estly and affectionately cultivated in the quiet of his 
study, and the fruits of that love, if harbored at all, were 
cherislied in secret. 

His chosen field of histoiy, covering a striking and dra- 
matic period in the life of France, appealed to him, per- 
haps, not so much because it was dramatic as because it 
gave free rein to draw conclusions other tlian those 
already submitted. To differ with people was easy for 
one of his mental make-up, as shown in his independence 
of others' opinions; but the natural expression of his con- 
siderate nature made him delicately adroit in his disap- 
proval. This was illustrated in his remarks respecting 
President Roosevelt's last message. 

Although his imagination was subdued, 1 Iiavc won- 
dered sometimes that he did not enter the realm of fiction, 
for his deep psychological insight and master^' of the 
inner struggles of men and women, if applied to the char- 
acters of a story, must have made him a successful nov- 
elist. In his chosen field, however, this gift distinguished 
him as an historian who could marshal and analyze his- 
toric personages with graphic power. Thus he wrote of 
Mazarin, of Conde, of Turenne, of Marie de Medici, the 
queen-mother, and of the two Louises, evincing skill as a 
narrator and hearty enjoyment in what he called re-pres- 
entation, while his caustic wit mingled with keen and 
subtle obseiwation. 



[58] 



Address of Mr. Alexander, of New York 

His five volumes, the preparation of which extended 
over sixteen years, must have cost him a deal of labor. 
He did not seek new sources of information, if, indeed, 
any such now exist. Nor is it diflicultj he tells us, to decide 
what is of the most importance in French history or upon 
what authorities one can safelj' rely. But the examina- 
tion of manuscripts, official documents, and diplomatic 
correspondence, to which the French, unlike the Ameri- 
can Government, courteously allow ready access, entails 
infinite labor, since a writer, to correctly understand the 
purpose of a single act, must often read scores of letters 
and lengthy reports. Nevertheless, the most difficult task 
for a writer of French histoiy, especially when studying 
the seventeenth and the first half of the eighteenth cen- 
turies, is the interpretation of events and the correct esti- 
mate of men. 

It is a period of duplicity, espionage, plots, and special 
courts, and responsibility for action is not easily fixed. 
Historians have despaired of presenting a correct portrait 
of Louis XV. After studying minutely eveiy act of Riche- 
lieu's life, writers interpret him differently. Mr. Perkins 
himself, in the preface of one of his volumes, states that 
whatever view one may take, another is certain to differ. 
Perhaps it can not be said with truth of any other centuiy 
of European historj^ that the character of its ablest minis- 
ter was " complex bej'ond the ordinary measure of human 
nature." 

Into such an historic field the literary barrister of 
Rochester did not hesitate to enter, bringing to the work 
a mind of a fiber as firm as it was fine, aspirations for 
mental achievement, a point of view of rational independ- 
ence, and a judgment essentially vigorous and sane. It 
would be difficult for a writer of French histoiw to leave 
no trace of the wide and varied sources of his informa- 



[59] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Perkins 

tion, but the pathway made by Mr. Perkins, although it 
blended and incorporated elements of others' work, was 
a new creation. His skill and experience in assembling 
and weighing evidence helped him. Moreover, what he 
said was his own and fashioned by himself. With the 
coolness of a veteran, he thus sums up the character of 
Richelieu's brother: 

Little could be said against him, except that he was a fool. 

If his estimate of the Iron Cardinal himself differs from 
that of other historians it is because the perspective of 
two centuries affected his vision less. His catholic mind, 
unawed by savants and untouched by prejudice, made 
Richelieu, clad in the red robes of the church, " a national 
hero," but it also pictured him as a perfect type of Machia- 
velli's prince. 

During Richelieu's administration — 

Wrote Mr. Perkins — 

so often had the ax fallen on persons of high degree that when 
Marshal St. Geran was on his deathbed, in 1632, he said to those 
about him, " They will not recognize me in the other world, for 
it is a long time since a marshal of France has gone there with a 
head on his shoulders." 

Mr. Perkins wrote exactly as he talked. Those familiar 
with his apropos quotation, his caustic suggestion, his 
cold logic, and his indifference to standardized views, 
could, with little difficulty, recognize him as the author of 
Richelieu's Life without the presence of his name on the 
title-page. He had no conceits, he suggested no fanciful 
reasons, he never guessed. To him the mainspring of 
action lies concealed in the human breast, and in judging 
men and women his knowledge of human nature alone 



[60] 



Address of Mr. Alexander, of New York 



governed. Neither professed loyalty nor family ties 
counted if ambition or other selfish desire were present. 
"When Mai-y de Medici complained to Louis XIII of his 
indifference to her happiness and comfort, Mr. Perkins 
did not ascribe it to Mary's unmotherly treatment of Louis 
in his youth. He knew that Louis had little use for his 
mother, and that she while regent had had little interest 
in his care and education, because their pathway to con- 
tinued power led them in opposite directions. Therefore 
he did not cry or sniffle in his speech about the indiffer- 
ence of the one or the tearful complaints of the other. 
It furnished him no text, as it had to others, for moraliz- 
ing over the ingratitude of children. 

Mr. Perkins brushed aside with another thrust of his 
cold logic the argument that a court favorite, Cinq-Mars, 
who had been guilty of treason, should not suffer death 
because he lacked mental capacity to do harm. "A man's 
being a fool," he says, " was no reason that he should be 
pardoned for being a knave." The action of this favorite 
upon the scaffold, singing hymns, reciting litanies, and 
bowing to the vast crowd with smiles of charming sweet- 
ness, provoked the satirical generalization that " gentle- 
men whose lives had been neither useful nor edifying 
usually faced ruin with calmness and death with a smile." 
He admits the character of Richelieu would seem less 
somber to posterity had he granted pardon more freely, 
but adds that the Iron Cardinal " saved the blood of the 
innocent by shedding the blood of the guilty." 

One can easily understand how supremely happy Mr. 
Perkins must have been with his books; but happiness 
was not limited to his study. He was happy everywhere — 
happy in his home, happy in his work, happy in his 
friendships. Jealousy, envy, and distrust found no lodg- 
ment in his delightful nature. Moreover, he had a genius 



[61] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Perkins 

for enjoyment. Although labor crowded him, he found 
time for generous social intercourse. But the real charm 
of his personality could be fidly appreciated only by those 
who, having the privilege of his intimacy, knew his free- 
dom from vanity, his gentle manner, and his rare unself- 
ishness. It was due to these qualities of his nature that 
he was widely held in affectionate regard and that his 
memoiy will be a perpetual joy. 



[62] 



Address of Mr. Andrus, of New York 

Mr. Speaker: Human life is a mystei-y — mysterious 
from its beginning to its end. Wliere did life begin and 
wbere will it end? From the past there comes no echo^ 
from the future no voice is heard. 

In a world filled with mystery, what is more mysterious 
than a human life? It needs the mother's love which 
warms the jeweled form of baby, for without her loving 
care it would perish in an hour. It needs the mother's 
constant care, though her greatest joy, to watch and guard 
the footsteps of childhood and of youth hard away from 
slippery paths. Mother's benediction and God's blessing 
follow the child, as it steps outward over the threshold of 
the old home for the last time, ere entering upon life's 
toil and work, from which there is no rest save in the 
grave. 

Life is often called a voyage— a journey — a struggle. 
If a voyage, who mapped the wide waste of the sea for 
life's vessel? Who used a plummet, showing the hidden 
rocks and treacherous shoals? Who trimmed the beacons 
in the lighthouses on the rocky coast? 

If a journey, who built the road and blazed the trail in 
all its devious windings from the cradle to the grave? If 
a journey, how does age come back again to childhood's 
happy hours? White age and childhood together stumble 
over the wrinkles in the carpet. 

If a struggle, who knows better than the toilers that 
cloud and storm instead of sun is so often over cherished 
plans? They know, alas, too well, how hard it is to till 
and sow in spring and never reap and sing the harvest 
song. 

[63] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Perkins 

How is it in the struggle of life so manj^ find the latch- 
string on the cabin door and never find the door of the 
palace? Yet it was always so; long years ago it was re- 
corded of man in sacred writ " In the sweat of thy face 
shall thou eat bread," and that law to-day is unchanged 
and unchangeable as the needle to the pole. 

Life's voyage, life's journey, life's struggle are all fail- 
ures if they do not from day to day produce something 
that makes the lives of others sweeter, nobler, and better. 

"Kind words never die"; if so, what maxim of the 
schools can measure their influence through the years? 

It costs so little to speak kindly to the sad, the sorrow- 
ing, and the suffering, and give a cup of cold water to the 
stranger at the gate. A kind word from the lips of a Scot- 
tish daiiymaid falling on willing ears led to a train of 
thought that relieved the world of one of its fell scourges, 
and the ages yet to come will never take the crown of 
gloiy from Jenner's brow. 

Kind words spoken, a word of cheer, a helping hand to 
the fallen, and cup of cold water to the stranger at the 
gate will never bring regret to conscience when its rapt 
and parting spirit leaves a fast-receding world. 

A kindly word spoken and the off'er of an extended 
hand to me on entering this Hall is the reason why I now 
bring my tribute to the memory of the late James Breck 
Perkins. The meniorj' of that hour lingers with me still, 
and will continue to linger like the echo note of some 
strangely beautiful song. A noble man, an honored and 
respected citizen has gone from us, but he left a priceless 
legacy — a good name. His mind was drilled in the schools 
and polished by the high ideals and activities of life. He 
has gone from us, and while the loved ones of his home 
may wait and listen for the sound of his returning foot- 
steps, they will wait in vain — never again will he gather 
with those he loved most and best, around the genial fire- 



[64] 



Address of Mr. Andrus, of New York 



side of his happy home, and never again renew with them 
his pledges of affectionate attachment upon the altar of 
a common faith. He has gone where the shadows never 
lengthen and where the weary are at rest, but he has not 
gone where God is not. Of him it can be said: 

Life's work well done, 
Life's race well run, 
A crown well won, 
And now comes rest. 

What of those of us who remain? The dial on the clock 
marks time for all. Man, with all his boasted power and 
achievement, can only claim the needle point of time a 
second, and, as I speak, that second has gone to join the 
eternities of the past. We grasp second by second from 
the eternity of the future; but soon, how soon we can not 
say, that grasping power will cease and that monster we 
all fear and dread will call for another Member of this 
House. That monster strides through the ages like a 
colossus, with unerring footstep ; he has a long bony arm 
and fingers without the velvet touch of flesh. He never 
wipes the death damp from the marble brow; his ear is 
ever closed to the wail of a mortal delirious with pain; 
his eye never moistens at the sight of a glazed and glassy 
eye, a parched and ashen lip, a hectic flush that bodes 
eternal paleness. Who next of our number will he call? 
When that call comes to one or another, the one called 
must go — in going may he go with proud and unfaltering 
steps down to the shore of the eternal sea and, as he 
pushes out on that last long voyage, may the winds blow 
low and the sea be calm, and through the weary watches 
of the night of death may he ever and anon catch glimpses 
of the light that comes from the far-off shore and by its 
aid steer his bark so that at last he may drop anchor in 
the quiet harbor that nestles just 'neath the evergreen 

15479°— 11 5 [65] 



Memorial Addresses: Representative Perkins 

hills of everlasting life, and, with glad, immortal eyes, 
view the dazzling luster of an eternal dajs with eyes that 
will never grow dim through all the eternities look for- 
evermore upon those angel faces bright that he has loved 
long years, but lost a while. 

The Speaker pro tempore. In accordance with the reso- 
lution heretofore adopted, and as a further mark of re- 
spect to the memory of the deceased, the House will stand 
adjourned until to-morrow at 12 o'clock noon. 

Accordingly (at 1 o'clock and 42 minutes p. m.) the 
House adjourned. 



[66.] 



Proceedings in the Senate 

Saturday, March 12, 1910. 

A message from the House of Representatives, by W. J. 
Browning, its Chief Clerk, communicated to the Senate 
the intelligence of the death of Hon. James Breck Perkins, 
late a Representative from the State of New York, and 
transmitted resolutions of the House thereon. 

The message also announced that the Speaker of the 
House had appointed Mr. Payne, Mr. Fitzgerald, Mr. Alex- 
ander of New York, Mr. Fornes, Mr. Calder, Mr. Fassett, 
Mr. Conry, Mr. Michael E. Driscoll, Mr. Parsons, Mr. 
Daniel A. Driscoll, Mr. Goulden, Mr. Cocks of New York, 
Mr. Foster of Vermont, Mr. Howard, Mr. Wood of New 
Jersey, Mr. Hitchcock, Mr. Denby, Mr. Lowden, Mr. Ferris, 
and Mr. Edwards of Georgia members of the committee 
on the part of the House to attend the funeral. 

The Vice President : The Chair lays before the Senate 
resolutions of the House of Representatives, which will 
be read. 

The Secretary read as follows : 

In the House of Representatives, 

March 11, 1910. 

Resolved, That the House has heard with profound sorrow of 
the death of Hon. James Breck Perkins, late a Representative 
from the State of New York. 

Resolved, That the Sergeant at Arms of the House be authorized 
and directed to take charge of the body of the deceased, and to 
make such arrangements as may be necessary for the funeral, and 
that the necessary expenses in connection therewith be paid out 
of the contingent fund of the House. 



[67] 






Memorial Addresses: Representative Perkins 

Resolved, That a committee of this House consisting of 20 Mem- 
bers be appointed to attend his funeral. 

Resolved, That the Clerk communicate these resolutions to the 
Senate and transmit a copy thereof to the family of the deceased. 

Mr. Depew. Mr. President, I offer the resolutions I send 
to the desk. 

The Vice President. The Senator from New York sub- 
mits resolutions which will be read. 

The Secretary read the resolutions, as follows: 

Resolved, That the Senate has heard with profound sorrow the 
announcement of the death of Hon. James Breck Perkins, late a 
Representative from the State of New York. 

Resolved, That a committee of five Senators be appointed by the 
Vice President to join a committee appointed on the part of the 
House of Representatives to take order for superintending the 
funeral of Mr. Perkins at Rochester, N. Y. 

Resolved, That the Secretary communicate a copy of these reso- 
lutions to the House of Representatives and to the family of the 
deceased. 

The Vice President. The question is on agreeing to the 
resolutions submitted by the Senator from New York 

The resolutions were unanimously agreed to. 

The Vice President, under the second resolution, ap- 
pointed as the committee on the part of the Senate Mr. 
Depew, Mr. Root, Mr. Gamble, Mr. Clay, and Mr. Overman. 

Mr. Depew. Mr. President, I move as a further mark of 
respect to the memorj^ of the deceased Representative 
that the Senate do now adjourn. 

The motion was unanimously agreed to; and (at 1 
o'clock and 25 minutes p. m.) the Senate adjourned until 
Monday, March 14, 1910, at 12 o'clock meridian. 



^ 



[68] 



LfcAp'l2 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 








013 744 257 7 ^ 



